It is understood that Hall is set to meet Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, and the Bectu general secretary, Gerry Morrissey, on 10 April in an attempt to clear the air.

"The morale of his staff is at an all-time low because of the cuts, excessive workloads and the BBC management's failure, in some parts of the corporation, to redeploy staff," said Stanistreet.

"The work carried out as part of the Dinah Rose inquiry has also lifted the lid on shocking levels of bullying and harassment happening under the noses of senior managers – yet still some BBC executives persist in playing down the extent of the problem."

The NUJ called for a six-month moratorium on job cuts and urged BBC management to examine the effect its cost savings programme, Delivering Quality First, is having "not just on the wellbeing of staff, working conditions and staffing levels, but on the very quality of the BBC's journalism and programming".

Stanistreet added: "We all have a stake in ensuring our public service broadcaster remains fit for purpose, but the scale and the implementation of these cuts threaten to sacrifice the corporation's ability to deliver the top-notch output it is famed for."

Morrissey said Hall had a "clean sheet of paper" and that he needed to convince BBC staff about their workload.

"BBC staff have had three years in a row of below-inflation pay increases, with increased workload, and we don't think that's sustainable," he said. "We're not going to allow our members to be bullied and harassed."

The BBC expects to make a total of 2,000 redundancies as a result of Delivering Quality First, the cuts programme introduced by former director general Mark Thompson after the licence fee was frozen at £145.50 a year in the 2010 deal with the coalition government.

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